The Telegraph reports this week that a major new study confirms that antidepressants can double the risk of suicide and aggression in young people … and that the drug companies have been covering up the stats:

Antidepressants can raise the risk of suicide, the biggest ever review has found, as pharmaceutical companies were accused of failing to report side-effects and even deaths linked to the drugs.

An analysis of 70 trials of the most common antidepressants – involving more than 18,000 people – found they doubled the risk of suicide and aggressive behaviour in under 18s.

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The review – the biggest of its kind into the effects of the drugs – was carried out by the Nordic Cochrane Centre and analysed by University College London (UCL) who today endorse the findings in an editorial in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

The Cochrane Collaboration [is] a group of doctors and researchers known for their comprehensive reviews—which are widely regarded as the gold standard of scientific rigor in assessing effectiveness of public health policies ….

The Telegraph continues:

After comparing clinical trial information to actual patient reports the scientists found pharmaceutical companies had regularly misclassified deaths and suicidal events in people taking anti-depressants to “favour their products”.

Experts said the review’s findings were “startling” and said it was “deeply worrying” that clinical trials appear to have been misreported.

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Professor Peter Gøtzsche, the lead author from the Nordic Cochrane Centre said: “Antidepressants don’t work in children, that is pretty clear, in the randomised trials children say that they don’t work for them, but they increase their risk of suicide.

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Commenting on the findings of the review Professor Gotzsche added, “It is absolutely horrendous that they have such disregard for human lives.”

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Dr Paul Ramchandani, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist with Central North West London Foundation NHS Trust said: “There have been concerns for a number of years about the way in which some trials of medicines or drugs for depression were originally reported, particularly when the treatment was for children and adolescents.”

Dr Paul Keedwell, Consultant Psychiatrist and Senior Research Fellow in the Neurobiology of Mood Disorders at Cardiff University, added:“The findings provide a further lesson in how professionals must carefully scrutinise drug company summaries for data on adverse events.”